Song of the Month for October!

The thing about irrational fears is that you know they’re irrational and that somehow doesn’t stop you from being afraid. Maybe the fear stems from childhood and is urged along by an episode of the X-Files or your brother hanging a marionette in his room. But one thing I know for sure: Furnace rooms are creepy. Michael Jackson and the Thriller zombies are lurking in the dark corners of every one of them (and there are ALWAYS dark corners) and there are probably spiders involved too. You should run quickly when you leave them and glance over your shoulder despite your better judgment as you slam the door shut. It's just common sense.

The sad fact of my job is that it involves many a furnace room, although they try to make them sound corporate by calling them "mechanical rooms" or "boiler rooms." They're just extra-big, extra-scary furnace rooms, with extra-dark corners, hissing steam and the unmistakable WHOOSH of sudden ignition, which is, after all, the very noise that summons Michael Jackson to jump out and eat your brain. Even when I'm there with a co-worker, fighting to understand the jumble of forty-two BILLION pipes, I am on constant zombie/axe-murderer alert. Forty-two BILLION pipes plus six boilers, and six chillers combating the six boilers make a heck of a hissing, whooshing, zombie-summoning racket, and I wish I could be cool about this... I wish I could say that it was fine... but I’m always a little bit surprised when we make it out alive.

What with me spending so much time in and/or drawing furnace rooms lately, and the fact that furnace rooms are very spooky and that it’s almost Halloween? How could I resist? The song of the month HAS to be “Furnace Room Lullaby” by Neko Case.

I had a real struggle with myself about putting the video on this post, because the video is honestly terrible. I don’t want you to watch it because I think it’s SO terrible that it actually detracts from the song. What I would LIKE you to do is listen to the song while driving down a dark, lonely highway, or better yet, go sit among the patina-dribbled copper pipes and flickering blue boiler flames in the Calgary Tower Mechanical room and listen. Heck, please consider sitting beside YOUR furnace! But at the very least, turn off the lights, turn up the volume, close your eyes and give it a listen. You can watch the video later, if you really feel the need, but do it my way the first time, k? Thanks.



Happy Halloween! Don't let Jacko getcha!